I am an Air Force brat, a self-taught artist, and a part-time mom these days. I work out my artistic demons by making stuff and trying to find the humor when things go wrong. I have a spouse, two grown kids and cats that barf and bring horrible things into the house, so things do go wrong. My youngest is in college and only home during breaks, so I'm almost an empty nester, alone more than not and trying to figure out this new stage of life. Time to make a mess.

March 3, 2017

I have to start this off by stressing I have the luxury of being a stay-at-home mom whose kids are now grown (though one is home after college graduation and trip meant to kill ME to Asia for a month, but that's another panic attack story), so I do the old fashioned job of keeping the house Monday through Friday. Unsolicited, my husband, who works an executive job about 11 hours a day, often two weeks straight if traveling, kicks in before I even get up on the weekends AND he cooks on the weekends. Seriously cooks. So my "chores versus creative time" is a mess of my own doing. Some things never change. The cats keep using the litter boxes that I have to scoop. Dinner doesn't take long to cook, but it always means making a mess that I have to clean up. Repairs around the house need to be managed, and it's my responsibility since I'm home. The problem is that with a big house and constant chores, it's really, really easy to get out of the habit of doing anything creative. What a shock to see how long it had been since I posted to my blog. It isn't that I expect anyone to read it - it's all about catharsis for me - but still! The lack of activity here is a testament to the lack of activity in my litter-boxy studio. Time for a new plan of action!

Today I put "studio" time on my calendar, actually treating it as if I were having a meeting (like in the oooold days when I wore a suit and had an office and business cards). If I put more of what I need to do on the calendar, it will give me more direction for the day, plotting chores time, errands time, and make a mess time. Today was more about making a mess.

Husband Harold has always liked my quilts and actually looks forward to attending events like the Road to California show every year with real enthusiasm. He also really loves the same modern prints and bright colours that I do, so he was very happy when I handed him my copy of Kaffe Fasset's "Country Garden Quilts" and ask him which one (that didn't have any curves!) he would like me to make for him. I should have torn out pages 28 & 29 first. O.M.G.

This quilt is made up of a million pinwheels, which means a zillion triangles have to be cut from dozens of fabrics, then reassembled in as close to perfect stupid little squares as possible. Four of those stupid little squares made of two triangles get assembled into one larger square and you have to hope and pray every stitch is straight and the squares are actually square. Curse pages 28 & 29! The instructions are NOT for the faint of heart, for the person who needed a tutor for math in 7th grade when we had to do math using dreaded fractions. I can do it now, but trying to do it with questionable instructions to begin with, boggling my mind, resulted in a lot of mistakes and the usage of all of the bad words that I know. And I have used them all with gusto.

This is what the stupid quilt is supposed to look like.

The instructions are a little confusing. I can build furniture from Ikea in the blink of an eye, so you KNOW these instructions had to be a little wonky. The directions for cutting fabric didn't make a lot of sense and are contradictory to most of what is taught in quilting class that I could find on my beloved YouTube or other web sites. All I wanted to know to begin was what the heck size fabric square do I need to start with to end up with a pinwheel of a specific size. This is what I had to do to get an answer to that question (and then I add extra to compensate for waggles in cutting).

I drew pictures. I cut out practice pieces using scrap fabric and assembled them to experiment with size. Then I found the Missouri Quilt Company website and video that explained how to do the math you see on this notebook page. None of that helps with simple counting, though, as is demonstrated by this pile of useless pieces that are the extras because I'm soooooo good at counting.

My charming husband asked, "Can't you just use these for another quilt?" And I asked, "Do you think I'm insane enough to make TWO quilts made up of a zillion triangles put back together to make one big piece of fabric?!?"

I think tomorrow I'll paint something. Maybe I'll make some more of my calling cards. I don't use as many bad words. Then I'm going to send all of my extra triangles to my sister as a surprise gift to add to her stash. Good luck, Lisa! xox

About Me

I would rather be funny than thin (I am), and I would rather be charitable of heart than beautiful (I am), but wouldn't complain if I were offered the thin and beautiful too! Creativity is something with which I struggle, either because my mind goes a mile and minute and I have a hard time focusing, or because I'm being pulled too many directions and distracted with real life. I blog to help me focus on creativity or just to work out my demons.